St. Matthew Lutheran Church- Rocklin, California

I have this HUGE plastic box of legos at home from my when my kids were young. Whenever I have young (and not so young) children in the house I get it down from up high in the garage and they LOVE it! How about you? Why is it we love to build things and create things? Why were we made this way? And what does this say about our creator? And what does it mean for us right now in the stories we are l...

Ok. Have you seen the movie? What could Buzz Lightyear and Woody possibly teach us about ourselves and our stories….and how God’s story connects with our stories? Come and see!...and maybe, for the fun of it, before this Sunday gather together your family and/or friends and watch the movie one more time!

Sounds like the love of a parent, doesn’t it?...always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.. Wouldn’t it be great if someone loved us in this way? Wouldn’t be great if we could love another and maybe another and maybe another in this way? Just as we began with Jesus and never really left Jesus in this “Summer of Love,” we come full circle back to Jesus, marveling in this gift...

Authentic. That’s a good word to describe my father. What you saw is who he was. He stood for the same things no matter what. I remember one time where a man who he worked with and who also went to our church engaged in behavior that was clearly wrong and immoral. It really “shook my dad up” as he honestly couldn’t understand why this man would do it and even went and talked to him, just the two o...

“Love is something to be given away, given away, given away…Oh yes, love is something to be given away and given away some more.” Do you remember this song? What it says is simply this, “love is not about ‘me’.” It is about giving it away to the other. Today we focus on what this looks like as we live together as the people of God, joining Jesus on His continuing mission in our world. This too is...

My mom lived almost 90 years. She was as sharp as a tack until the day she died. She did her own bookwork preparing everything for her tax advisors –to the point where they said they really did not have much to do! She lived in the home I grew up in, taking care of everything that needed to be done. As a retired nurse, she could still, with great knowledge, converse on the subject with my son who...

I remember in Jr. High School going on a retreat at the Claremont Colleges entitled “Freedom through Slavery.” They gave us a little chain with a padlock and a key in it. We talked about how so many different things –even good things – can enslave us…and how true freedom is only found in Jesus. Today we remember and celebrate the freedom we enjoy as citizens of this nation. To our God be all prais...

Have you ever had the experience of having to take care of a business matter on the phone and the person was KIND to you? It really is not something we have grown to expect, is it? Or perhaps in a store? The other night with a very tight time schedule, I was waiting in a crowded quick check lane in a grocery store and the clerk who was running it, seeing that I only had 4 items, waved me forward a...

Today, we unabashedly and joyfully celebrate fathers! We will talk about fathers. We will remember our Heavenly Father. We will have “manly” donuts. And we will give away not only a devotional to guide and strengthen our fathers as they look to live out their lives as Christian fathers, but also a manly coffee mug so every morning as they drink their coffee they can be reminded of who they are in...

Jeff, my oldest son, was two years old when James was born. Almost as soon as James could move they would play together, with Jeff delighting in letting James maul him. It didn’t matter what James did, Jeff just laughed and loved him and put up with him, even when James started to scratch his face to such an extent that it looked like a cat had scratched him. But as the years went by I noticed a r...

I see it in the faces almost every time these words –from the book of First Corinthians in the Bible – are chosen to be read in a wedding. The stare that says that somehow while we like these words and we want these words to be true and we even desperately hope they can be true for this couple…and maybe even somehow also in our lives…. what we have experienced is that love does fail…again and agai...

Have you ever tried to decide which restaurant to go to when neither one of you really cared and you both have problems making decisions? It is hard - even frustrating - to live in uncertainty. A couple of weeks ago, I saw the advertisement for a Television show where the host traveled the world exploring how humanity connected with God, kind of throwing them all “into the same pot.” Tell me, do y...

“I’m tired.” “Worn out.” “Done.” When is the last time you have said this?...or thought it? The followers of Jesus were told to wait for power from on high. It came in the form of wind and fire, like the roaring and power of a spreading brush fire….and it has never left us. Where are you weary? Tired? Worn out? Done? Where do you need to remember and be renewed in God’s power for you? Today is for...

Have you ever seen one of those “Where’s Waldo?” children’s books? Every page is completely filled with all kinds of different things, but somewhere on that page, camouflaged and hidden, is Waldo. You just have to find him. Do you ever feel like your hunting for Waldo as you are trying to figure out where you “fit in” to things? Today, God brings everything into focus and with it, He reveals our p...

When Jane was pregnant with our first child, we had some very close friends who were also pregnant with their first child. Our due dates were so close together that we were in the hospital at the same time having our babies. What joy we had as we greeted our first born – a healthy baby girl! Our friends also had great joy as they greeted their first child…but it was mixed with sorrow and concern a...

This is where the rubber hits the road. None of us are getting out of here alive. Death touches each of us. And illness is not far behind, ravaging and destroying lives that once had such promise. It is THE human condition. The temptation is to see only death and defeat and hopelessness. How has this temptation touched you? But there is a greater reality. It is the foundation and reason for an “Un...

There are many types of and reasons for grief, but they all involve loss. How have you experienced grief? What - or who – have you lost? Where in your life are you grieving today? And how has this threatened your faith? Today, in His unshakable love for you, God would come to you right in this place to empower you to live in “Unshakable Faith” in the things that you will never lose! Today, He will...

We all have doubts –right? While we would like to vilify Pontius Pilate when he asks Jesus, “what is truth?” if we are honest, we can, at times, identify with his doubts, can we not? The problem with doubts is that they tend to paralyze us with respect to doing the right thing. Just ask any basketball player who, after shooting and making a particular shot perhaps hundreds of times, for some reaso...

It is hard to try again when you have failed –or even feel like you have failed, no matter what others say, isn’t it? When children –or even adults – flunk a test or maybe a number of tests, it is so hard for them to have the confidence to continue, isn’t it? On the other hand, when we experience success, it is so much easier to confidently take the next step, true? Today, we talk about “Unshakabl...

Catastrophic trouble. How would you define it? How about something like, “the crumbling away in our lives of the pillars that we thought would never crumble?” As a nation perhaps the Great Depression of the 1930’s is a good example. Individually, maybe the unexpected loss of a job. Or perhaps a relationship that disintegrates before our very eyes which we can do nothing to prevent. What would this...

Approaching the Super Bowl, all the pundits make their picks but then say something like, “I just hope we have a good, close game.” Well, not me. I want the champion to be the champion. I want the champion to win overwhelmingly convincingly so that no one can say, “Well, they were lucky to win that one,” or “It could have gone either way.” I love it when the champion blows out the other team so th...

The bottom line. After the beating and the crown of thorns and the nails and the crucifixion and the jeering and the ridicule….even after being utterly forsaken by the Father, how could He do this? And more importantly, can we?

Have you ever seen or read about those massive radio transmitters that are searching the galaxy for other life? It seems that we just don’t want to believe that we are alone. It is scary…and somehow, deep down, we know not right. Today, we remember that we are not alone and that Jesus took time out “on the night that He was betrayed” to make sure we know it. We are not alone. He is present in our...

Have you ever read the poem, “Into the Valley of Death Rode the 600?” It is the account of an English Calvary charge during the Crimean War. In the poem, it acknowledges that everyone knew immediately –with canon to the right and canon to the left of them – that someone had made a mistake….yet they rode on. And in stanza four it says, “Then they rode back, but not –not the 600.” Sometimes, in the...

A child waiting for Christmas…on Christmas Eve. A football fan waiting for the kickoff of the Super Bowl when your team is playing in it. A parent waiting for their child’s name to be called at their college graduation ceremony. Anticipation. It’s like you can feel the excitement in the air. Today, we join the anticipation of hearing “God’s Voice in the Thunder.”